In 'season of development,' Padres' position players worth watching

With all due respect to James Shields, Matt Kemp and other veteran departures, the Padres seem to have struck a livelier, more buoyant tone this spring. Largely because of altered roster composition, an atmospheric shift was bound to happen. Daily workouts and Cactus League games now feature the likes of Austin Hedges, Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot, a group of youngsters tickled to be on the cusp of major opportunity.

“It’s awesome,” outfielder Travis Jankowski, 25, said. “Little more comfortable, and, also, the energy. I think the energy is the thing I can’t stress enough. There’s so much energy in this clubhouse. And positive energy. No one’s complaining about what we’re doing or complaining about early mornings. Everyone’s energetic, and everyone’s ready to get their work in.”

How long the good vibes will last is uncertain. A little more than a week from now, Margot, Jankowski or another fresh-faced teammate will step into the batter’s box at Dodger Stadium, and Clayton Kershaw will remind everyone of his status as the greatest pitcher on the planet.

Understandably, the Padres will continue to be up against it well past opening day. Last month, Executive Chairman Ron Fowler acknowledged that 2017 will be “a season of development for a lot of players.” The rebuilding team’s most enthusiastic supporters dream of what 2019 or 2020 could be. Before a regular-season pitch has been thrown, no rotation in the game has drawn more criticism.

The Padres have all but admitted that things could get ugly in the short term, diverting most of their funds to signing teenagers born outside the U.S. The organization’s best prospects, many of them pitchers, won’t debut in San Diego for a couple more seasons, if they ever do.

In the meantime, the youngsters will be under the spotlight. Hedges, Margot, Renfroe and Carlos Asuaje did not look overmatched in call-ups late last season, fostering hope that the organization had assembled a sturdy foundation for the future. In one especially tantalizing moment, Renfroe launched the first-ever home run to reach the roof of Petco Park’s Western Metal building.

The importance of wins and losses may be diminished this year, but the maturation of a youthful core will be paramount. Sometime in the not-so-distant future, the Padres’ record will either justify their current course or highlight their latest systemic failure.

“The biggest thing is, the position players have opportunity in front of them,” General Manager A.J. Preller said. “They have an opportunity to establish themselves as regular big-leaguers and quality big-leaguers. They also have an opportunity to establish a culture.”

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Two offseasons ago, the Padres, pursuing a path to immediate contention, acquired multiple brand-name bats. It turned out to be a miscalculation. Despite the cost of several nearly majors-ready prospects, the new additions never congealed into a consistent unit. A vaunted pitching staff sputtered. San Diego lurched to another sub-.500 finish.

The big-money players were jettisoned over the last year and change. In their stead, the Padres are pushing talented but unproven options — Hedges at catcher; Renfroe, Margot, Jankowski and Alex Dickerson (currently sidelined) in the outfield — alongside franchise face and first baseman Wil Myers.

The familiarity is already there. With the exception of Myers and Margot, all of them rose through the minor leagues together. After being traded from Boston before last season, Margot, the Padres’ top position-player prospect, joined the others on a Triple-A El Paso team that marched deep into the postseason.

“That group we had in El Paso last year and a lot of those guys that have a chance to impact the team this year, I think we developed really good relationships on and off the field, and it’s rolled right into here in spring,” Hedges, 24, said. “Even the guys we brought in are the exact type of guys, the exact type of people, that we want in this organization. It’s just clicking. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Manager Andy Green’s second spring training in charge has been marked by a more hands-on approach. Personnel has much to do with it.

“It’s totally different,” hitting coach Alan Zinter said. “These guys are coming in young and hungry, so we’re going to give them some work to do and get these guys expedited on where they’re trying to get to.”

“I think this camp is a little bit different in the fact that we have a really young group,” Renfroe, 25, said. “We do need a little bit more coaching, obviously, because we don’t have as many games under our belt as most big-league teams.”

Said Myers, 26: “A lot of times, you get a team full of older guys that are kind of set in their ways, which, there’s nothing wrong with that — that’s what got them to where they are. But with this team we have, it has to be more focused on the future and building for the future and preparing for the season and teaching these young guys, including myself, how to prepare, how to get ready and how to be the best, intelligent baseball player you can be.”

Renfroe, Margot and Hedges all could join Myers as regulars, yet have combined for only 56 career starts in the majors. Jankowski and Dickerson exhausted their rookie eligibility in 2016, but between them have started just 174 games. Ryan Schimpf and Cory Spangenberg, a duo with 187 total starts, are jockeying for playing time at third base beside Yangervis Solarte, who likely will start at second.

Most of these players have at least one tool that could carry them in the big leagues. Renfroe’s power and arm are those of a prototypical right fielder. Hedges’ defense already rates as elite. Jankowski’s speed is a weapon in the field and on the basepaths. Margot, Jankowski’s competition for center field, is similarly fleet of foot, with an uncanny ability to put bat to ball. Dickerson’s swing from the left side contains the potential for 20-plus home runs.

Weaknesses also figure to be exposed at the highest level. Renfroe’s ability to crush mammoth drives comes with a tendency to swing and miss. Hedges’ offensive surge in El Paso may not translate to more challenging environs. There is the possibility that Jankowski and Margot never hit for enough power to become true game-changers. Dickerson, who will miss opening day because of a disc protrusion, is limited to left field. The Padres remain in search of a reliable shortstop, unconvinced that Luis Sardinas, 23, is the answer.

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If all goes according to plan for the 2017 Padres, multiple players will present solid cases for National League Rookie of the Year, Jankowski will take another step forward, Dickerson will avoid an injury-wracked season, Spangenberg will put an injury-wracked season behind him, Myers will repeat as an All-Star … and San Diego still will secure another top-three draft pick.

Though the Padres would never openly use the T-word (it rhymes with “frank”), a major league payroll that projects to be second-to-last or dead-last says plenty.

That need not affect the mindset of those on the field.

“We want to win every year,” said Hedges, who is in his fifth big-league camp and his first as the undisputed starting catcher. “We expect to win this year, right now. I believe in every single one of these guys, and anything less than winning would be a disappointment.”

The Padres believe what transpired in 2016 will accelerate their culture-building. Hedges, Renfroe, Margot and Asuaje formed the backbone of El Paso’s run to the Pacific Coast League championship. The quartet’s experience was one of delayed gratification; they did not surface with the big-league club until late September.

“I think it’s about making a winning attitude,” Renfroe said. “I think it’s winning through the minor league system, playing together, knowing each other, creating a brotherhood, basically, and being a close-knit family. Being able to hang out together after ball games as well as in the clubhouse.”

The Padres have spent a portion of each morning at the Peoria Sports Complex engaged in a 32-man ping pong tournament. There have been golf outings and dinners. Myers and Hedges have discussed the possibility of renting hotel conference rooms on the road for poker nights and other team-building activities, though present specifics are sparse.

“We can get creative,” Hedges said.

None of this, of course, is exactly revolutionary. In a little more than a week, a true test of the Padres’ budding core will begin.

“I get the fact that a lot of people are counting us out, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to come in and just chalk it up to a rebuild year,” Myers said. “We definitely want to come in and create a winning culture, because that’s the most important thing, is winning. If we can create that winning culture, I think, going forward, we’ll be able to exceed the expectations until we get to that point where we’re ready to compete.”

On Oct. 1, the Padres almost certainly will conclude a seventh consecutive season under .500, a 10th without a trip to the playoffs.

In the meantime, there will be things worth watching.

“It’s really up to these guys to create the culture of expectation that everybody beneath them rises up to meet,” Green said. “And those guys have to elevate their game and their expectation in order to do that. ... They all have a good start under their belts, but there’s a lot of work out in front of those guys, too. They’re going to be the first group of guys that, in my mind, establish the way we do things moving forward. I think the groundwork’s been laid.”